I Have Found A Harry Greb Fight (OMFG) Video Here

[GJC]

they had color cameras back then to...for such big events why didn't they use the best equipment.

Big question for me is what happened to the Walker Greb fight they must have filmed it.

[Gettin Jiggy]

i actually thought you had found footage of greb then and when i click i see poet! not funny!

[JAB5239]

Not sure about that, my son got me the Laurel and Hardy collection (a secret vice) which has the black and white films plus colourised versions. Don't care much for the colour ones to be honest they just look crab. Think colourised boxing films would be even worse. Much rather they showed the old ones unspeeded up as an improvement.

I haven't seen it (read the book), but I've heard the documentary "unforgivable blackness" had computer generated graphics of some of Johnsons fights in which they were able to make them look like many of todays fights. Anyone know if there is any truth to this?

[QueensburyRules]

i actually thought you had found footage of greb then and when i click i see poet! not funny!

- -Well, it was funny in it's day...

[Marchegiano]

Poet doesn't post about history anymore. Too busy crying about being brown these days.

[Willie Pep 229]

they had color cameras back then to...for such big events why didn't they use the best equipment.

It was not an issue of film cameras back then - unlike TV cameras film cameras could shoot both color and B&W stock - but with color film suffering from three distinct problems: being more expensive, needing more light, and preservation longevity - a decision was made during the Second World War that all important events would be filmed in B&W and only trivial things or back-up footage in color- because the early color film stock would degrade (color shift) much more quickly than the B&W films.

The destruction of most of th early fight films came about because of poor storage - these fight films didn't have to degrade as bad as they did had the films been stored at a constant, without humidity, temperature. It is why so much of the early Hollywood films, e.g. Chaplin, Keaton, ETC still look good today, becuse the negatives were properly stored.

Most fight films were made by small independents who treated them more like news footage with their importance seen as a one-off performance value for a quick money grab - with little to no thought towards their preservation for posterity. Most of what we have today comes from private collections from cheaply made duplications for a home market, often in 8mm, and not from the major studios who were not filming prize fights.

[QueensburyRules]

It was not an issue of film cameras back then - unlike TV cameras film cameras could shoot both color and B&W stock - but with color film suffering from three distinct problems: being more expensive, needing more light, and preservation longevity - a decision was made during the Second World War that all important events would be filmed in B&W and only trivial things or back-up footage in color- because the early color film stock would degrade (color shift) much more quickly than the B&W films.

The destruction of most of th early fight films came about because of poor storage - these fight films didn't have to degrade as bad as they did had the films been stored at a constant, without humidity, temperature. It is why so much of the early Hollywood films, e.g. Chaplin, Keaton, ETC still look good today, becuse the negatives were properly stored.

Most fight films were made by small independents who treated them more like news footage with their importance seen as a one-off performance value for a quick money grab - with little to no thought towards their preservation for posterity. Most of what we have today comes from private collections from cheaply made duplications for a home market, often in 8mm, and not from the major studios who were not filming prize fights.

- - Black and White film is indeed the Holy Grail of Photography/Cinematography as far as longevity and crispness of image.

Not sure what the time span of the digital, but I suspect over all it's short because of software formats going out of use making images defunct.

[Willie Pep 229]

- - Black and White film is indeed the Holy Grail of Photography/Cinematography as far as longevity and crispness of image.

Not sure what the time span of the digital, but I suspect over all it's short because of software formats going out of use making images defunct.

Yea! I have a hundred hours of my kids growing up on 8mm Video. The camera broke and I had to rush out and buy a used camera and now I'm in the process of trying to move it all to digital so they can keep it. In time I have no doubt the format I am converting to will go obsolete as well.

My childhood was preserved on old standard 8mm (not even Super 8) and boy did I have to pay to have that digitalize (for only fair quality) becuse I couldn't find any projector that could play back old 8mm.

[QueensburyRules]

Yea! I have a hundred hours of my kids growing up on 8mm Video. The camera broke and I had to rush out and buy a used camera and now I'm in the process of trying to move it all to digital so they can keep it. In time I have no doubt the format I am converting to will go obsolete as well.

My childhood was preserved on old standard 8mm (not even Super 8) and boy did I have to pay to have that digitalize (for only fair quality) becuse I couldn't find any projector that could play back old 8mm.

- - Got my mom's color 8mm digitized by a state historical functionary, but my computer would barely play the CD, and now my laptops don't have CD. Still got the footage well stored in canisters in case anyone wants a look at what Harry Greb looked like back when...

[JAB5239]

- - Got my mom's color 8mm digitized by a state historical functionary, but my computer would barely play the CD, and now my laptops don't have CD. Still got the footage well stored in canisters in case anyone wants a look at what Harry Greb looked like back when...

Is that where you hide the Robinson-Pep amateur fight?